It has indeed been a pleasure for me to work as the Principal of this reputed college which was started by Late Bapuraoji Deshmukh who was an ardent disciple of Gandhiji and had strong commitment for the welfare of the rural masses. He established ‘Yeshwant Gramin Shikshan Sanstha’ in the year 1959 under the aegis of which this institution was started in 1960, and the UGC recognized the institution under 2(f), 12(b) in 1971. Since then, the institution has been imparting education to the students coming mostly from the surrounding villages. In 2001, our Society won ‘The Best Education Society Award’ from the Govt. of Maharashtra. The college also won second prize of Rs. 50,000/- cash from Government of Maharashtra in the session 2014-15 for Jagar Janivancha Abhiyan. The college has a strength of 2647 students. The Senior college has strength of 1750 students, while the Junior college has 897 students. This year, six of our students from Junior college have cleared JEEE and four students have received Kishore Vaigyanik Scholarship. Two of our senior college NCC candidates have represented the National Republic Parade. Three students of Post Graduation in English have cleared SET examination. One of our teaching staff members, Dr. R.K. Mor, has been offered the Raman Post Doctoral Research Fellowship by U.G.C. He is planning to complete his Post Doctoral research in USA. The college celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2010-11 wherein several functions were held to commemorate the event. A Vidharbha Marathi Sahitya Sammelan was held in the college wherein several literary figures had participated. It was a great moment for the college and the education society. Recently, the birth anniversary of our Founder Chairman Late Bapuraoji Deshmukh was celebrated by instituting a Lecture Series in his name. Prof. Arun Gujrathi, the Ex-speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, delivered the first lecture of the series on topic “Democracy in past, present and future” on 9th May 2016.
Our college runs B.A., B.Sc.(Home Science), LL.B. 3 year and 5 year Degree course, M.A. in seven disciplines, LL.M. in six disciplines and M.Sc. in Textile and Clothing. It is a Centre for Higher Learning and Research in four subjects. The college also has a Yeshwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University Centre which has a strength of 600 students. The college has a huge central library with more than 1,00,000 books, e-books, magazines, journals which effectively cater to the needs of students and faculty. The laboratories are well- equipped with the latest instruments. The college provides many facilities such as interactive boards, L.C.D.s, O.H.P., projectors, computers, audio-visual aids, etc. ensuring the students to have an effective learning experience. The institution encourages the faculty to attend seminars/conferences/ workshops/refresher courses so as to update their knowledge in respective disciplines. The college also has a medical health centre wherein the fitness of the students is taken care of.
The institution has organized State Level and National Level seminars on different subjects. Recently, the Internal Quality Assurance Cell of our college had organized a NAAC sponsored two-day National Seminar on the subject “The Need for College Academic and Administrative Audit”. The seminar was well attended and appreciated. This seminar was followed by a workshop for the Wardha District farmers. The workshop was on Sericulture and Bee-Keeping. The logic behind it, was to give a second option to the farmers so as to make them financially sound in order to reduce the suicidal rates in Vidharbha. The research committee in the institution facilitates and monitors research activities. R.T.M. Nagpur University has given the college a status of Centre for Research and Higher Learning in five subjects namely History, Political Science, Law, Textile and Clothing and Psychology. The Ph.D. aspirants can enroll themselves with the college to complete their Ph.D. programmes. 15 faculties out of 27 are Ph.D.s, 5 faculty members have submitted their theses, and others are in the process of completing. Till now, the faculty has completed 1 Major and 14 Minor Research Projects. The college has a staff club which was set up in 1968 to cater to the academic needs of the faculty. Every week, there is a paper reading session where academic discussions take place. Last year the college has run a sixty-hour course work on Research Methodology for the students enrolled for doctoral programmes. The college is committed to run such courses every year in future. Many extension activities are carried out by the college to contribute to the community development. The college has adopted a village named Karanji Bhoge which is 10 kilometers away from the campus. The NSS students and teachers visit the village to identify and ameliorate the problems of the villagers. The college has a huge auditorium that can accommodate 1000 students and a seminar hall with a capacity of 120 delegates.
The enrolled students are entitled to get GOI scholarships from Central and State Governments. But apart from these scholarships, the teaching and non-teaching staff has created a corpus fund through which Yeshwant Scholarship is given to the meritorious students irrespective of caste, religion and the financial status of the parents. This scholarship acts as a motivational force for the students to do better and better. The college has a rich alumni who are today working in different walks of life. The NAAC Peer Team visited the college for the first time in 2004 and the college was awarded with B++ grade. The reaccreditation was done in 2010 and the college was awarded ‘B’ grade with CGPA of 2.69 on the four point scale. The college has always strived to nurture and sustain academic atmosphere in the premises. With the global challenges coming in, the very system of education is going through a metamorphosis; however we are committed to our goals and the college has a vision to provide excellent academic orientation to the learners coming from rural masses and would stand by it even in future. It is committed to foster scientific, rational, humanitarian and democratic outlook among the learners. We shall keep on doing our best to realize the vision envisaged by our founders.
Dr. Girish Thakre
